Inside Hull KR’s Wembley preparations: trains, legends input and mentality

For a generation of Hull KR supporters, Saturday’s Challenge Cup final could be a day 40 years in the making.

But for Willie Peters and his staff, it is a day that, irrespective of the outcome, he has been planning and preparing for across the last two years.

2023 was supposed to be the day Rovers’ lengthy wait for a trophy came to an end. Perhaps, in the year when some of football’s biggest clubs have won at Wembley for the first time in years, it was always meant to be this Saturday and 2025 that would be the day.

But do not be fooled into thinking Rovers are leaving anything to chance. They have left no stone unturned to ensure they are ready for Warrington, ready for the occasion and ready for whatever the day may throw at them.

It started on Thursday morning, when the Robins left Hull to a wonderful send-off from their army of supporters, many of whom will be heading down to London via all forms of transport.

Rovers travelled to Wembley by coach in 2023 leading to traffic delays and an even more arduous journey back home after their dramatic defeat to Leigh. This time, things are different.

“It’s normal in terms of on-field prep, doing video and things like that,” Peters said when asked how their week into the final shapes up.

“What’s different is the attention to detail. We’re deliberately travelling down a couple of days early. We have the send-off on Thursday and they’ll wish us well but we’ll go into business mode then and we’ll learn from previous ones.

“We’re on a bus last time for about six hours on the way down and you can’t predict traffic so we’ll do that differently. We’re on the train. We’re controlling things a little bit our way. It’s making sure we can control what we can control. We’ve had some slight tweaks.”

Rovers are also mixing up their accommodation from 2023, despite Peters admitting with a smile this week it was the ‘best hotel he’s ever stayed in’.

They were outside London in 2023: this year, they are round the corner. That means fewer potential travel disruptions, and leaving much less to chance.

That will enable them to lock in a usual pre-match schedule in terms of arriving at Wembley at the regular time before kick-off, and keeping things as simple as possible. 2023 was anything but.

“After the game two years ago, we reflected and there wasn’t a great deal we would have changed. We got beat in little moments in the game.

“The hotel was the best I’ve ever stayed in but it was a bit of a distance away and the traffic is unpredictable.

“When we were talking about hotels, we were talking about how we may have to give ourselves time to get to the ground and things like that. We don’t want that now.

“We want to do things normally and get to the game the normal time we get to games. Last time we got there a bit early and we’ve got a certain time we want to arrive at the ground. That’s what we’re aiming to do this time by staying in a hotel nearby.”

Friday evening will see Rovers’ 17 be presented with their jerseys for the game. But they will also be welcomed by a special guest, an undisclosed legend of the Robins who will deliver a pre-match talk – something that they didn’t do two years ago, or before last year’s Grand Final.

“I won’t say anything yet,” Peters said when asked who the individual was. “We haven’t looked to get anyone in previously but there is someone I’ve got in mind who has been there and done it who will speak to the group.”

Some coaches also look to use previous defeats as motivation. Peters is the exact opposite and his final messages to the players will not be about putting things right from Wembley two years ago or Old Trafford in 2024: it will be about what lies ahead of them.

He admits: “I’ve watched some snippets from the Challenge Cup for what I want to use this week. Not around emotion, just around different things in that game.

“I’m a believer in not using that sort of stuff as a motivation because then you start talking about it. You want to talk about what you want to go out and get, that should be a stronger emotion if you want it bad enough.”

And we do not have long to wait to find out just how badly Hull KR’s players want it. One thing is certain: there can be no excuses about their pre-game preparation.

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